Bio-Inspired Design: What Can We Learn from Nature? Judith H

Welcome to BioInspire, a monthly publication addressing the interface of human design, nature and technology. BioInspire.1 01.15.03 Bio-Inspired Design: What Can We Learn from Nature? Judith H. Heerwagen, Ph.D. J.H. Heerwagen & Associates, Inc. 2716 NE 91st St. Seattle, WA 98115 [email protected] (206) 522-0354 Bio-inspired design, as it will be developed in this essay, draws heavily on E.O. Wilson’s concept of biophilia and related work in environmental aesthetics. There are other valuable approaches to bio-inspired design, particularly those stemming from a consideration of the functions and processes of nature as so eloquently described by Janine Benyus in Biomimicry. My focus here, in contrast, is on the forms and sensory attributes of nature that hold special psychological significance. Wilson defined biophilia as “the tendency to focus on life and life-like processes.” This fascination with life propels scientific inquiry as well as our aesthetic sensitivities. Wilson and others argue that because the brain evolved in a biocentric world, we should be especially tuned to features and attributes of nature that have had consequences for survival and reproductive success. As Steven Pinker writes in How the Mind Works: “The brain strives to put its owner in circumstances like those that caused its ancestors to reproduce.” As well, the brain strives to avoid circumstances that reduce the chances of survival and reproduction. Thus, our minds have evolved both to seek out beneficial! ! ! places and things and to avoid the harmful. This includes living organisms as well as the natural processes that sustain life (especially light, water, and fire). Understanding what it is about nature that attracts or repels is at the core of bio-inspired design, as developed in this essay. Although we tend to equate design with the sense of pleasure and enjoyment, design also must confront hazards and dangers in the environment in ways that intuitively evoke avoidance behaviors. Mr.Yuk stickers are used to warn about harmful substances, just as smiling faces are used to convey pleasure with a desirable object. It is this link to emotions that we need to better understand, because design strives to evoke particular kind of emotional experiences, either as ends in themselves or as motivations for other behaviors, such as consumption, entertainment, and avoidance of hazards. Bio-inspired design is relevant to a wide array of applications – including places (communities, landscapes, buildings, rooms), toys, furnishings, tools, technologies, and vehicles. There are obvious connections between bio-inspired design, Kansei engineering, and emotion centered design, all of which aim to connect emotional experience more explicitly to the sensory and perceptual qualities of spaces and products. Bio-inspired Place Design. For most organisms, being in “the right place” is an important determinant of survival and well-being. There is no reason why this should be different for humans. The central adaptive pressures facing all animals, including humans, are protection from hazards (both animate and inanimate) and access to high quality resources and spaces. Positive affective states of interest and pleasure, associated with preference, signal that an environment is likely to provide resources and supports that promote survival and well being, while negative affective states serve as warnings of potential harm or discomforts. Drawing on habitat selection theory, ecologist Gordon Orians argues that humans are psychologically adapted to landscape features that characterized the African savannah, the presumed site of human evolution. Although humans now live in many different habitats, our species long history as mobile hunters and gatherers on the African savannahs should have left its mark on our psyche. If the “savannah hypothesis” is true, we would expect to find that humans intrinsically like and find pleasurable environments that contain key features of the savannah that were most likely to have aided our ancestors’ survival and well being. These features include: · A high diversity of plant (especially flowers) and animal life for food and resources. · Clustered trees with spreading canopies for refuge and protection. · Open grassland that provides easy movement and clear views to the distance. · Topographic changes for strategic surveillance to aid long distance movements and to provide early warning of approaching hazards. · Scattered bodies of water for food, drinking, bathing, and pleasure. · A “big sky” with a wide, bright field of view to aid visual access in all directions. Savannah “mimics” are obvious in many of our modern built spaces including shopping malls, department stores, golf courses, and parks. Research on the design of retail settings shows how the manipulation of space and artifacts influences purchasing behaviors. Many of these manipulations -- light, décor, sounds, food, flowers, smells, visual corridors -- are consistent with the savannah hypothesis and other research on environmental preferences. Geographer Jay Appleton independently developed a prospect-refuge theory of landscape preferences that is closely related to the savannah hypothesis. Appleton argues that people prefer to be in places where they have good visual access to the surrounding environment (high prospect), while also feeling protected and safe (high refuge). Conversely, high negative reactions are expected when one can be seen without the ability to see into the environment. An overview of research on children’s environments by Heerwagen and Orians (in Children and Nature, MIT Press cited below) shows strong ties between spatial qualities of children’s environments, especially the provision of prospect and refuge fea! ! ! tures, and play behaviors. Young children are more likely to engage in creative play in refuge-rich environments that afford the protection and safety necessary for imaginative exploration. Natural settings also provide a rich array of artifacts that serve as pretend play props. Architectural historian Grant Hildebrand argues that the manipulation of prospect and refuge and the integration of nature and naturalistic features is a hallmark of many buildings of enduring appeal. Although Hildebrand did not gather any empirical data, others have, including a study by Suzanne Scott of interior environments. She found that built spaces with nature, moderate degrees of complexity, and a sense of refuge coupled with high prospect were more preferred than spaces lacking these characteristics. People especially liked spaces with vertical and horizontal expansiveness that were subdivided into smaller zones. Scott suggests that zoned spaces provide users with the potential to survey the surroundings, but still enjoy partial concealment. Many of the preferred settings also ha! ! ! d soft, rounded forms and irregular layouts. Institutional spaces with minimum décor and embellishments were especially disliked, as were vast empty spaces. Nature is not always benign, however. The natural world is rife with hazards that create fear and anxiety. These include animal fears (especially snakes and spiders) as well as environmental anxieties (darkness, enclosed spaces, heights, loud noises, storms, being in the open without protective cover and being alone in a strange place). Horror movies and fun houses do a masterful job at manipulating emotions through the design of space and the introduction of hazards. Health Impacts of Connection to Nature Studies by Roger Ulrich have consistently found that passive viewing of non-threatening nature stimuli through windows, videos, or photographs reduces the physiological indicators of stress and increases positive moods. Rachel Kaplan reports similar results in a field study of office workers. Kaplan found that workers who had window views of nature felt less frustrated and more patient, and reported more overall life satisfaction and better health than workers who did not have visual access to the outdoors or whose view consisted of built elements only. Russ Parsons suggests that positive effects of nature may extend to the immune system, thereby! ! ! directly affecting human physical health. In keeping with these findings, research also shows that people working in windowless environments decorate their rooms with more nature pictures and décor than people in windowed spaces, perhaps as a way to enhance their psychological comfort. Our evolved responses to landscapes are also apparent in the design of video games for children. Video games feature places, stimuli and events with strong roots in our evolutionary past – predators, prey, ominous strangers, natural hazards, scary places, poisonous foods, and a safe home base. Researchers have also found that the most appealing games have a cluster of motivating features, including dynamic visual imagery, randomness, action, dynamic hazards, spatial and visual complexity, audio effects, and interactivity. These aspects of nature will be addressed in the final section of this essay. But first, I turn to another natural element that is fundamental to life on earth and which plays a str! ! ! ong role in our response to the environment – sunlight and the diurnal change in light. Bio-inspired Lighting Design. The strong preference for nature extends to daylight and views to the outdoors. Research on windowless spaces shows that people complain most about the loss of daylight and not having access to time and weather data. Why should people care about these losses when we have

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